The Irish VC ep38:Can AI Fix the Broken Media Market? A Vision for the Future of Advertising with BuyMedia's Fergal O'Connor
The Irish VC Podcast — Buymedia, media buying, and scaling from Ireland. In this conversation, Sarah Jane Larkin speaks with Fergal O’Connor, founder and CEO of Buymedia, about how he built the company from an early marketplace idea into an AI-driven media planning platform. The discussion covers start-up iteration, customer-led product development, funding in Ireland, and the changing media landscape across Ireland and the UK Key topics How Buymedia started and why the original marketplace concept changed Moving from inventory access to understanding where ideal customers consume media Building AI personas, media plans, marketplace buying, and performance feedback loops The impact of new media channels and the challenge of recency bias Ireland’s start-up ecosystem and the role of Enterprise Ireland, local enterprise offices, NDRC, and grants The gap between early-stage funding and large-scale growth capital Scaling into the UK and learning a different go-to-market approach AI, agentic media buying, and the future of advertising Buymedia began with the idea of giving buyers visibility into media inventory and pricing, but later pivoted to solving a deeper problem: helping brands understand where their customers actually consume media. The platform now supports the full workflow: building an ideal customer profile, creating a media plan, buying media, and measuring what works. Fergal described the company’s growth as a customer-driven journey, with products shaped by market feedback rather than built in isolation. He praised Ireland’s early-stage startup support but highlighted a funding gap once companies move beyond initial checks and need bigger growth capital. He believes the next major shift in media will be driven by AI, especially agentic systems that can automate media buying and selling. Customer discovery should happen before building the product Revenue generation early can make a startup more resilient Funding discipline matters as much as growth AI will increasingly shape how media is planned, bought, and measured
